NEW YORK — Since Oprah Winfrey packed up the couch that Tom Cruise jumped on and ended her
daytime talk show last year, no one has truly filled her role as the go-to person in television for
major celebrity and news interviews.

Now someone is trying to claim that spot — and would you believe it’s Oprah again?

Faced with the potential failure of the money-pit cable network OWN, Winfrey is working the
phones hard to secure big-name interviews for
Oprah’s Next Chapter.

Recent back-to-back episodes featured the Kardashian family and rapper 50 Cent. Michael Jackson’s
daughter, Paris, and the family of the late Whitney Houston also made news with their interviews
in recent weeks.

The open question is whether Oprah can have the same cultural influence on a smaller stage. Her
daytime talk show was generally seen by about 6 million people in her final years;
Oprah’s Next Chapter with the Kardashians was seen by 1.1 million, according to Nielsen
ratings.

“I am sure that people have a conversation about that when they are exploring their options,”
said Sheri Salata, president of OWN. “The one constant we have is that you have the opportunity to
sit down with Oprah.”

Winfrey’s daytime show wasn’t all about interviews, of course. But, in her last few seasons, she
sat down for conversations with the likes of Beyonce, Richard Branson, Elizabeth Edwards, Tina Fey,
Madonna, Michelle Obama, Jerry Seinfeld and Denzel Washington.

The audience was primarily women, but, as Cruise proved with his eager declarations of love for
Katie Holmes in 2005, the cultural effect could spread beyond the afternoon.

“Doing an interview on one of those shows was like Johnny Carson asking you to come sit with him
after you’ve done your stand-up,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for
Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse (N.Y.) University.“If there was any equivalent to
playing the Palace at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, being on
Oprah might have been it.”

Although Thompson said that “Half the people can’t find OWN on their cable television,” that
might underestimate Winfrey.

The
Oprah’s Next Chapter episode with Houston’s family in March premiered to 3.5 million
people, Nielsen said. Many others heard about it or saw clips.

Winfrey’s presence in daytime was a mixed blessing for veteran Hollywood publicist Howard
Bragman. Most of his clients wanted to be on
Oprah and were convinced they had a story she wanted to hear. When they did, it was
great.

When they didn’t, not so great.

“It was a ton of pressure,” he said, “and there’s a part of me that is happy the pressure has
lifted.”

Now he can suggest a media strategy with interviewers who reach his clients’ target audiences.
Bragman often goes retro, preferring the news divisions at broadcast TV networks.

Ellen DeGeneres is probably the leading personality in daytime now, but her show is about
entertainment. Dr. Phil and Anderson Cooper get some interviews, as do
The View and
The Talk.

None has the effect that Winfrey had on a consistent basis, said Bill Carroll, an expert in the
syndication market for Katz Media.

Winfrey is working hard to land interviews, Salata of OWN said.

“If somebody has a rough story and wants to be more than a movie star or more than a pop singer,
they know they’re going to get that opportunity with Oprah,” she said. “That is a huge advantage.
That really does keep us in the game with all the big interviews.”